Rowland Morken, 1926-2012

Longtime Winfield volunteer firefighter and fire district trustee

Rowland Morken was a Winfield Fire Protection District trustee for 15 years.

Rowland Morken spent more than 34 years with the Winfield Fire Protection District, first as a volunteer firefighter and then as a district trustee for 15 years.

Mr. Morken helped oversee the district's transition from a volunteer department to one with paid firefighters. He also served on the board as the district built its second fire station, at Winfield and Roosevelt roads in Winfield.

"He was dedicated to fire service, and he tried to be frugal and save the taxpayers money," said John Karwoski, who was fire chief for the district from 1974 to 1988.

Mr. Morken also involved himself in a range of civic activities in Winfield, including serving as a village trustee and co-chairing the building committee for the design of a new building at his church.

A resident of Winfield since 1960, Mr. Morken, 86, died Tuesday, Sept. 25, at his home, said his wife of 63 years, Marcy. He had been in declining health since suffering a heart attack in 2005, she said.

Born in Chicago, Mr. Morken grew up in Oak Park. After serving in the Army Air Forces for two years in World War II, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two years and worked with his parents at their family-owned grocery in Oak Park.

Mr. Morken wanted to run a grocery of his own, and in 1960, he heard about a grocery at Church Street and Chicago Avenue in Winfield that was for sale, his wife said. He and his wife bought the store and renamed it Morken's Village Store, she said.

He and his wife ran the store for 11 years until selling it in 1971. At that point, Mr. Morken went into business as a commercial and industrial real estate broker. In 1976, Mr. Morken formed his own industrial realty firm, which he ran until selling it to his son and retiring in the early 1990s.

In January 1962, Mr. Morken joined the Winfield Fire Protection District as a volunteer firefighter. Mr. Morken was committed to serving in his community, family members said, taking after his father.

"If someone said, 'Rol, can you help us with this?' he was always there to help," Marcy Morken said.

In 1981, Mr. Morken stepped back from volunteer firefighting duties and onto the district's board. Over the next 15 years, he tackled a variety of changes with the district, including its gradual transition to having some paid firefighters.

In addition to helping to oversee the construction of Fire Station 2, Mr. Morken also oversaw the district's decision to outsource its paramedic services, helped hire Chiefs David "Skip" Higgins and Richard Swanson and signed off on a variety of equipment purchases.